Cram Week
by catfishii
Summary: It's finals week, and the students are feeling the strain. But what happens when you add four travelers and an over stuffed rabbit? A variety of semi-related stories that were half-experimental and half-crack. T for serious issues and improper use of pens
1. What's in a Name?

**What's In a Name? Well, I'll never look at Ashura the same way ever again. Finals week! X_X**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything in here. Any reference to Islam, ridiculous or otherwise, comes from a purely historical point of view and is not intended to offend anyone. If the al-Qaeda comes to get me, let it be known that I died like Hussein. Who is NOT Saddam Hussein. And I will shut up now before I screw up really badly. Kthxbye.**

* * *

It seems like in every world, they had to spend some time in the library, researching.

This one was no different.

Yes, it was a bigger library. And yes, the database was bigger. And _yes, _it was a heck of a lot quieter.

There was an oddly tense vibe running through the library, though. Everywhere the travelers walked, they could see people as young as eleven to as old as seventeen huddled over tables buried under a mountain of textbooks, paper, and electronics of the academic nature.

"Fai-sa—" Sakura began to ask, only to be met with irritated, harassed glares and harangued "SHHH!"'s

"Sorry," she whispered meekly. Kurogane almost slapped himself.

"SHHH!"

Syaoran wandered over to an empty table. Or, a table as empty as it would ever be. It was covered with packets, papers and binders that all seemed to have one word in common: Islam.

Intrigued, he picked up a packet at random and flipped to a page.

"_Hussein," _he read aloud, but quietly enough so that only he could hear. "_The son of __**Ali (the fourth and last of the Rightly Guided Caliphs (656-661))**__, to whom the caliphate was given to by the Shi'ite when the caliphate was seized by the Shiite upon the death of Mu'awiyah in 680 AD in Madinah. He was martyred in the massacre of the battle of Karbala by Umayyad troops in the same year. See __**Ashura **__for more details."_

Obediently, Syaoran flipped to the entry for _Ashura. _By then, Fai had wandered over and was reading over his shoulder.

"_Ashura," _Syaoran whispered quietly again. Fai paled. "_One of the—"_

"—_key centers of Shi'ite practice, it worships the martyrdom of Hussein, Ali's son, at the battle of Karbala in Madinah," _a different, female voice joined in acidly. "_More often than not, the emotions produced by the worship causes self-flagellation."_

Syaoran and Fai whirled around in surprise, Syaoran with a noticeably guilty look on his face. The girl looked murderous. Her weapon of choice? A pen.

"And what," she hissed, "are you doing with my study guide? Didn't _anyone_ teach you not to take things that aren't yours?"

"Umm…"

"We're very sorry, miss," Fai butted in smoothly, still somewhat pale. _So Ashura-ou in this world is a holiday for an organization known as "Shi'ite," who celebrate some poor guy who effectively killed himself? This world is _bonkers_. _"We weren't aware that it was so important to you." He was met with a chorus of irate "SHHH"'s.

She threw up her hands in frustration. "It could be the difference between me making it out of this semester alive or as a cadaver, if that's what you mean! _Now give me back my study guide before I stab you with this pen._" The pen clicked threateningly.

"Syaoran," Fai murmured, "do what she says. I highly doubt Kuro-chichi will enjoy fighting his way out of a mob of angry, over-stressed out students."

Syaoran replaced the study guide in a hurry.

**

* * *

**

I've actually heard the stupidest things said before (not _to _me, per se, but still): "Do you speak Muslim?" "Is Islam in Asia?" "Wait…so you have, like, oil wells in your backyard?" And, a personal favorite: "Wait, so is Taiwan, like, a province in Singapore?"

**Actually, this has a lot of potential. How 'bout we make 'em run into more irate, studying teenagers? The chapters will probably get longer...**


	2. Fix You

**A/N: It's a new chapter! That's twice as long! Yay! I've taken up a personal challenge. I'm not going to use identifying pronouns (he, she, him, her) or first person for the main character in this chapter. I want you to tell me if it worked. And yes, I **_**did, **_**in fact, make up a couple of words.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that **_**poof **_**in. Or the amazing song "Fix You" by Coldplay. Or "How to Save a Life" by the Fray.**

* * *

The large, flat, concrete rooftop was empty. The air was silent.

The person hiding in the shadow of the little building on the rooftop gently closed the laptop containing the carefully thought out details answering the never-ending question of _why? _and set it aside. Slowly, the person stood up and emerged into the light. Blinking at the sudden sunlight, the person moved slowly towards the far edge of the building, resolve hardening with every step. The goodbyes were said, statuses updated, and final message recorded.

What else was missing?

The answer came with a dazzling flash of light and in the shape of four people and a fat rabbit, whose wings were rapidly contracting into its body. The person retreated back into the shadows, confused. A hallucination? Possibly.

There was an impossibly skinny blonde; a tall, muscular, black-haired Asian; and two children, easily related. The blonde and Asian could easily have been their parents.

What almost confirmed that it was a hallucination was their clothing. The blonde wore something that no person in their right minds would wear when it was sixty-five degrees out, a perfect sunny day. He—she?—must have been sweltering underneath the thick coat. The Asian was dressed in all black and red, as if he were cosplaying as a ninja. The girl wore an odd ensemble, reminiscent of a more conservative Princess Jasmine, and the boy wore things that looked as if they needed a wash and more than a few stitches.

The person in the shadows stifled the giggles that threatened to spill out when the blonde starting twirling in the light breeze. The giggles turned into a stifled gasp of shock when the magic rabbit spoke.

"Mokona doesn't feel a feather here!" it squeaked. The person was confused. What was this? An extended, all-too-real metaphor?

The dark one growled. "Then let's move on to the next damn world and MAGE!" he barked. "STOP TWIRLING LIKE SOME DERVISH. EITHER GET RID OF THE COAT, OR KEEP SWEATING."

"Aww, but Kuro-tan! The breeze feels nice when it's circulating underneath my coat!" the blonde squealed cheerfully. "Besides, don't you think it would be nice to stop and straighten things out for a little while?"

The boy was supporting the girl. "Kurogane-san, Fai is right. We need to stop for a while, just to rest. Or," he amended, after seeing the look on the towering man's face, "at least until the princess wakes up." Carefully, he let the girl slump to the ground, asleep.

The person was watching with an avid interest now. A song named bubbled into consciousness. Something from seventh grade. _How to Save a Life, _it was called.

They all had connections with each other; that much was obvious, the watcher decided. The young boy and girl had an attraction to each other that was hard to parallel. So _simple. _So _innocent. _Why couldn't there be more people like that? The other two, too, had a strange relationship. Something comradical and comedic. Something of a balancing act—light and dark, red and blue, white and black, yin and yang, the dragon and the phoenix. But both would have a lasting relationship. The rabbit, too. There was something about it—the carefree nature of its bouncing, the way it teased with reckless abandon—that made it seem like there was something somewhere waiting for it to come back.

The person sat down, thinking, picked up the discarded laptop and opened it. Immediately, a song started up. How had it known that? The person would never know, but now there was evidence for the seemingly impossible International Baccalaureate essay prompt.

_When you try your best but you don't succeed_

_When you get what you want but not what you need_

_When you feel so tired but you can't sleep_

_Stuck in reverse_

It seemed to tell the story of a life that seemed far, far away. A story of failures from over-demanding teachers, parents; a story of impossibly high expectations.

_And the tears come streaming down your face_

_When you lose something you can't replace_

_When you love someone, but it goes to waste_

_Could it be worse?_

_Lights will guide you home_

_And ignite your bones_

_And I will try to fix you_

The music, quiet and gentle though it was, had caught the attention of the four that were awake. The girl on the ground stirred. They quieted and stood there, listening. Not one dared to break the silent spell that settled over them.

_And high above or down below_

_When you're too in love to let it go_

_But if you never try, you'll never know_

_Just what you're worth_

Quietly, the blonde moved closer to the towering Asian. He—she? The person still wasn't sure—wrapped his arms around the other man's arm, subtly pulling him closer to the blonde's mouth.

"Would you like to try with me, Kuro-rin?" he whispered almost imperceptibly. The taller shook his arm out of the smaller's grip but wrapped the same arm around the surprised blonde.

"Why not?" he muttered. "Can't hide it from the kids for too long, anyway." The not-so-secret watcher smiled when the blonde shifted closer. The intuition was right—they _were _going to have a long, lasting relationship.

_Tears stream down your face_

_When you lose something that you cannot replace_

_Tears stream down your face_

_And I…_

_Tears stream down your face_

_I promise you I will learn from my mistakes_

_Tears stream down your face_

_And I…_

_Lights will guide you home_

_And ignite your bones_

_And I…_

_Will try to fix you._

The group was staring determinedly at each other, silently promising, within the song lyrics, to stay to together. The watcher finally glanced down at the computer screen. There was an unread email. When it opened, it opened a link, which led to a live feed.

"Don't leave us," read the white poster cards that the watcher's friends held up. _How'd they realize…? _"We love you," said the other side. "We all do." A new card. "We'll help you." Even behind them, there was a mountain of books and paper that suggested that they were all in a similar place, possibly right next to each other. Saying they all cared.

Suddenly, Cram Week didn't seem so bad. Tears welled up in eyes and spilled over, and when the watcher looked up again, the group had left. No. They had disappeared. There was no trace of their ever being there. But they had given the watcher hope, and a feeling of new purpose.

Humming softly, the person began removing all traces of the terrible decision that had nearly ruined several lives.

**

* * *

**

A/N: It can start with such a little thing…


	3. Biology for Dummies

**A/N: With a biology final just around the corner, I figured, eh what the heck. Let's do one about biology! After, I really am supposed to be studying for biology instead of writing up stories about characters that exist only in the pages of my imagination. -_-;**

* * *

Kurogane had literally no idea what the hell was going on. There were kids everywhere, wading through reams and reams of paper. He _should _have been prepared enough to know that every world was different. What he wasn't prepared for was the reckless abandon these people seem to cut down trees and bleach them into thin pieces of what seemed to be blue-lined, white or peach colored paper.

"…so the glucose passes into your bloodstream and into the cells, where it combines with other glucose cells to be stored as glycogen. Then, it is broken apart again and converted sixty percent of the energy is immediately lost to the environment while the other forty percent goes to ATP to be sent into a muscle cell to be used as kinetic energy and released into the environment as thermal energy. The glucose, in the meantime, is broken down into oxygen and carbon dioxide in the muscle, due to hydrolysis and sent back into the bloodstream to the lungs and exhaled into the environment," a boy recited quickly while another boy checked his answers and a girl listened attentively nearby, checking on yet another sheet of paper.

Kurogane listened incomprehensively. First of all, what the _hell _are glucose, ATP and hydro-whatever? Second of all, he highly doubted that any of these kids knew where the feather was. Thirdly, it the mountains of paper, he seemed to have been separated from the rest of the group. He pinched his brow in frustration, and the girl asked another question.

"What are the three types of transport?"

"Umm…" the boy glanced around; frustrated that he couldn't remember the answer off of the top of his head. "Diffusion, facilitated diffusion, and active transport."

Kurogane looked at the group. Did they, or did they _not _notice him? If they didn't they were either as blind as bats (possible, due to the thick glasses all three of them wore) or really attentive when they studied. If they did, they either chose to ignore him, or weren't terrified like they should be when a hulking, six-foot-plus mass of muscle was standing mere feet away from the three, the heaviest of which couldn't have been more than a hundred-twenty pounds.

That last possibility hurt his pride. A lot.

He cleared his throat. "Oi."

The group ignored him and continued quizzing each other. "What is bioaccumulation?"

"Oi."

"Not now." The boy waved him away impatiently. "It's when there's some sort of toxic build up in a higher trophic level, due to the exponential increase-ment of eating things lots of smaller things, thereby accumulating more of the toxins."

"HEY. YOU. LISTEN TO ME."

"SHUT UP. WE'RE CRAMMING FOR BIO. What causes decomposition?" This question was directed at the girl.

"Bacteria and other decomposers eating the dead carcass of either a plant on an animal."

"Jesus, I hope this test is completely multiple choice. We're all _dead." _The second boy laid his head on the table.

"You'll be dead in a second if you don't listen to my question," Kurogane threatened, pawing at his sword.

"Hey, you. Do you know a skinny blonde, and a fluffy brown-haired kid? 'Cause you look like someone who might." Another voice popped up from behind him. It was another girl with thick glasses, but she was holding a thick study guide that read "CONSTITUTION TEST" on the front.

"Yeah, so what?" he shot back rudely.

"You better go save them. They're in non-fiction. My friend's about to stab them to death with a pen."

"Where the _hell _is _that?" _he half-yelled, eliciting "SHHH"s from all around him.

"Down aisle, to the right. Can't miss it," she said. Kurogane nearly slapped his forehead. Great. Just great. One, he never got to ask his question, and two, the moron and the brat had somehow gotten themselves mixed up in _something. _He took off from the trio of Biology students and wended his way through tables piled high with thick tomes either labeled "Medieval History," or "World Humanities."

He arrived just in time to see Syaoran dropping a packet labeled "Islam Study Guide" on the table. "OI MAGE," he yelled, startling the girl and eliciting further shushing. "Where's the princess?"

Syaoran's eyes widened. "Ah! Hime!" He ran off, leaving the mage and the ninja alone.

"I'll be taking _that," _the pen-wielding student said tartly, plucking the study guide off of the table. She wandered away with the pen in her mouth and eyes glued to the study guide.

The mage and Kurogane looked at each other. "Kuro-loud," Fai began slowly. "Where's Sakura-chan and Mokona-chan?"

Kurogane slapped his forehead and groaned in frustration. _OF COURSE. _This library just had to be the library of pitfalls, dead-ends, confusing labeling, and over-stressed children. Brilliant. Whoever designed this world had his congratulations. It would take _hours _to find them in this miasma of paper. "How the hell should I know?" he asked. "The minute I turned around, you all disappeared into some place or another."

Fai laughed. "Fine, fine, whatever you say, Kuro-rin. But first, we should go find Mokona-chan and Sakura-chan. Then, we'll be able to Syaoran-kun."

"Lead the way, mage," a surly Kurogane grumbled.

"Oh, by the way, Kuro-shu, I learned that the Ashura in this world is a holiday where they people cut themselves with swords—isn't that lovely? You'd fit right in!" Fai flashed a dazzling grin at Kurogane.

"He _WHAT?" _Kurogane roared, forgetting himself and where he was.

Consequently, half a dozen _Odyssey _books flew at his head, all seemingly of their own volition, yet nearby, certain somewhat unfocused students were snickering into their textbooks.

"Tsk, tsk, Kuro-xi, you need to remember to be quiet in a library." Fai waggled his index finger at Kurogane.

"Shut it, you moron. Just lead us to the princess and that manjuu so we can start hunting for the feather."

**

* * *

**

A/N: I've never mentioned how much I despise the sciences, have I?


	4. Etymology Hell

**A/N: How 'bout it, eh? Sakura's lost in a library and runs into etymology. I actually have a very limited knowledge of Greek and Latin roots. Enough for the general sense of words, anyway. **

**No, I don't own anything. Not even my OCs, who were based off of real (unnamed) people. "Cuum" is pronounced "Q-m," Q as in _Q-tip _and mmm...you know...If I put Cum, it would look wierd, Okay? **

* * *

It was actually quite easy to sum up what Sakura was at the moment.

Lost.

She had blinked. Turned around. And then, they were all gone. In their place was a stray sheet of lined paper, blowing carelessly around in the updraft.

A person ran by, chasing after it.

She looked around.

All around her, Sakura could see people.

People studying their noses off, quizzing each other as if their lives depended on it. (To some degree, it _did.)_

People taking a nap, exhausted and slumped over their textbooks.

People scribbling desperately away at peach-colored paper, tapping away at calculators, and consulting more peach-colored paper.

People staggering in and out, backpacks slung over heavy shoulders, bags and shadows prominent on ashen faces and a distinct air of "I'm this close to collapsing" hanging around like a bad spirit.

But nowhere did she see the distinctive shock of blonde hair on a lithe body that was Fai-san, nor the dark mass that was Kurogane-san, nor the loveable amber eyes of Syaoran, nor the small squishy body that was Mokona.

She wondered briefly where they could have disappeared to. Then, she decided to ask for directions. She walked up to the nearest group of people, who were quizzing themselves near hysterical, but quietly so.

"Um…excuse me?" Her quavering question, timid and somewhat quiet though it was, shattered the tense atmosphere with a distinct crack. She ducked to avoid an ancient World History textbook that was making a beeline for her head, and tried to ward off the "SHHHH"'s that accompanied it.

Supposedly, it wasn't the decibel level of her question.

Supposedly, it was the pitch of her high voice.

Supposedly, it was the current intolerance level that was running high amongst the irate students.

Either way, it broke the silence, and the students were pissed to the nth degree.

"I'm sorry!" she breathed. "I didn't know."

"It's fine," a friendly-looking girl (who had a cadaverous look about her, thanks to intense all-nighters) mouthed back with a touch of sound. "What's your question?"

"Um…well, you see—"

"That's great; will you quiz me? My partner's gone to look for a lexicon," she continued. "_Lexi- _means 'word'; _-con _means 'study' or 'negative.' Depends on the use," she muttered to herself.

"Um…alright." Sakura decided that, if she was going to be able to find anyone, she might as well let them find her. She settled down across her new etymology (_etymos "_true" from _eteos _"true" and -_logos _"study of") partner and took the proffered guide.

She scanned the list, which was four pages and a bit long, single spaced.

She exhaled, trying to quell the fear that she would have to sit through this for until they found her.

She looked up at the girl, and they both noticed the rather game face both were currently sporting.

She looked back at the list, and chose one at random: "_a-"_

"Erm…" The girl hesitated, racking her brain for the answer. "Erm…ehm….."

Sakura opened her mouth, ready to state the answer.

"Waitwaitwaitwait…I _know _this! I _know _I know this! Just…gimme a sec," the girl hissed, flailing at Sakura to stop.

Sakura closed her mouth and waited patiently.

"Euhm….._a- _means…._not!" _The girl looked at Sakura with a triumphant look on her face.

Sakura looked down. "Right," she said. "What about…_auto-?"_

"_Self."_

"_Bio-?"_

"_Life."_

"What kind of life?"

"Um…_one's own life."_

"Good." Sakura was having fun. Picking out Greek and Latin roots at random wasn't as bad as she thought it was. She flipped a couple pages in. "_Saliens."_

"What the heck is that?" The girl shot her a bewildered look. "Wait, don't answer that," she hurriedly added when Sakura opened her mouth to answer. "It means, um…" She ran her hands through her hair, frustrated. "_Leaping."_

"Good," Sakura encouraged again. She flipped back a page. "_Nebula."_

"_Mist."_

"_-logos."_

"_Study of."_

Flip a page. _"-graphy."_

"_Writing of."_

"_Chronos."_

"_Time."_

"_Chromos."_

"_Color."_

"_Vilis."_

"_Disgusting."_

"_Sakura-hime!"_

They both looked up, surprised. Syaoran was standing over the two of them, obvious confusion written all over his boyish face.

"What're you doing?" he asked.

"She's helping me study for a Cuum Test that my teacher was so _kind _to give me on the last week of the semester, _affectionately _renamed 'Cram Week.'" Unfortunately, whatever sarcasm the interruption contained was lost to Syaoran's narrow focus.

"Come on, hime," Syaoran urged. "We don't have _time _for this. We have to find Fai and Kurogane-san and find your feather so that we can get out of this monstrous library of irritated people."

"_Excuse me?" _The girl hissed with narrow eyes over Sakura's quiet "I thought you liked libraries…" "_This library is a holy sanctum of over-stressed neophyte-slash-students trying to fulfill the demands of our God-like teachers!"_

The hyperbole was further lost on Syaoran.

"Anyway," he continued, pulling insistently on Sakura's hand, "We've gotta find them."

"Find who?" a different voice asked lightly. "Us?"

Syaoran whirled around, hands up to block whatever might be flying towards him, be it ten-pound textbooks or snowball-like paper balls. He flushed embarrassedly when he realized that it was only Fai and Kurogane. Then he breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh. Well, now that we're all together, we should go looking for the feather."

"But…" Sakura trailed off as another girl arrived.

"You're in my seat?" The end of the simple statement curled into a question mark. Sakura blushed and stood up to get out of the way. The other girl sat down and crossed her legs. "Ok, you can continue doing whatever you guys were arguing about. I'm just going to sit here and pretend to study and not listen."

Kurogane growled. "Whatever. Let's just find the stupid meat bun and the feather and get out of this God-forsaken world!"

"_Oh! _I _knew _we were forgetting something!" Syaoran would have slapped his face, if the two girls (not Sakura) didn't get there first.

"Oi! Washington is a perfectly _respectable place to live!" _

"…I never said it wasn't!" Syaoran whispered indignantly. (Even in moments of indignation, he never forgot his manners. Unlike others…ahem.)

"_It was IMPLIED _heavily by your and his connotation!" Girl number two hissed. (Even in moments of very misdirected pre-testing, sleep-deprived anger, these students never forgot proper grammar and conventions.)

"What the fuc-," Kurogane got out before Fai clamped down on his mouth.

"_Not in front of Sakura-chan, Kuro-bad!" _he sang softly as Kurogane tried to pull his hand away from his mouth.

"Never mind, just…SCRAM!" The first girl shooed them away with a peach-colored packet rolled up tightly in her hand. "I don't want to see you ingrates ever again."

No one outside of the current library patrons could understand why four strangely dressed people high-tailed it away from the table covered in Greek and Latin roots and surrounded by people at least a foot and a half shorter than the tallest of them, all with dark rings around their eyes.

No one wanted to know why, either.

Students are a very dangerous species.

**

* * *

**

A/N: If you learned something, that's great. If you didn't learn anything, good for you.


	5. In Conclusion

**A/N: Another one from the perspective of an outsider, but this time, it's in the first-person. Sort of. Humm…finals are over, so this one will be the last chapter until spring finals, then I think I will be gone for a bit for vacations and what not. Or, at least until I get another idea or decide to reorganize everything in my hard drive and whatever files I have floating around online. Funnn. It's easy to tell who's in the advanced classes at my school. They're either more conservative in their fashion, or they have glasses.**

**How simple.**

**Quickly, anything religious (ridiculously mentioned or otherwise) is purely historical, as are movie and book references. And "Eric" is a name could be replaced by anything. I just happen to know several. And Mokona and they do not belong to me.**

* * *

The text swims hazily in and out of focus in front of my eyes. What was it that I just read? Um…_Allah-hu Akbar…_something something…Ibn Battuta…something something….haahAGH!

____?

Wait. That's not a rabbit.

Um…Who are you? –poke-

"Mokona is Mokona!"

-duck- An _Earth Abides _book soars through the air, the corner landing with deadly accuracy on the spot where the Mokona was situated just a second before, quickly followed by an orange. I keep the orange, but throw the book back at the offender with equal accuracy.

Bastard.

But now I have to deal with this fat-rabbit-miniature-thing-Mokona. _WHATEVER. _

I choose to ignore it and lift my study guide back up and begin muttering IDs to myself.

-taser- ARGH! !(*#&! BASTARD ERIC. I WILL GET YOU BACK. A retreating back and a quickly flashed "victory" sign greets my sight. I return to muttering IDs to myself.

-giggles- "Lady has a mouth just like Kuro-grump's!" –ignore-

-poke- -ignore- -pokes harder- -ignore- -taser-

DAMMIT YOU PIECE OF MOCHI STOP POKING ME; I AM TRYING TO STUDY HERE! The poking stops.

I don't know what the Mokona was doing in the blissfully peaceful, poke-free silence. As long as it kept from crapping on my stuff, I was fine.

"MEYYEKO!"

Everyone in the vicinity jumps higher than they did at Eric's first bass drum note at the AVPA assembly. (How they crammed the entire school into one set of bleachers, I'll never know.)

Several yell "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"

Several others throw pencils, pens, erasers, and textbooks at the offending object, all of which it deftly avoids. I have to jump out of the way to avoid them, eyes still glued to the steps of the Hajj.

Aargh. I wanna see it squished. Die. Die. Die.

Hey, wait. What's the Mokona doing _now? _I watch with a slightly detached interest, not really wanting to continue with studying for the Islam test, not really wanting to start studying for the Spelling Cuum.

-beepbeep- What's that? –shifts through pockets- Oh. My phone. Looks like someone's going to kill themselves again. Or at least try to. Time to go all Catholic on them. It helps that they think I'm a nice person who _really sincerely cares for them_. Which I do, of course. I'm just not the nicest. LIES. BLASPHEMY. THE CHURCH DAMNS YOU. FOLLOW IN DANTE'S FOOTSTEPS, BUT PLEASE, DON'T COME BACK.

The Mokona has stopped sniffing. Dear Allah, what the hell is in its, um, paws? I've never noticed it. Did it get it from my stuff? –looks over- hmm…there's an _A Tale of Two Cities _book open that wasn't open before…It looks like a feather. Ooh…it looks _fluff-aaayy….._

WAIT. I got distracted. Back to work. I've gotta memorize the gist of fifty more IDs by next Monday. MUST. NOT. GET. DISTRACTED.

"He _WHAT?" _A mysterious man roars. Consequently, I throw my _Odyssey _book in his general direction out of irritation. Umm…actually, thatwas a bad choice. Now I'll have to go and get it. Rrrr…

Something brushes my nose, and I brush it away. There's a warm that spreads from the tip of my nose to the rest of my body, though, and it feels wonderfully refreshing. I look up. The Mokona is holding the feather in its hands. Paws. Things. Whatevers.

Can I feel?

-gives-

Running my fingers along the edges, I marvel at the texture of the feather. It's as white as snow (pardon the cliché—bleach just sounds disgusting) with an intricate pattern inked in a bloody-roan color inked on both sides. The feather is thick, and reminds me of the feather that Dopey used to sleep on when the pillow burst in _Snow White_: thick, squeaky, and fluffy. I bend it delicately and wave it in the air a couple times. It's long, too, like the medieval quills that scribes used, and makes a delightful tickling sound when I wave it in the air. But it's beautiful. There's a faint glow to it, and it's warm, alive, _thinking. _I stroke it tenderly a few times, still amazed at its downy quality. Somehow, in that little moment, from when the Mokona gives me the feather to when I give it back, I feel myself relaxing and healing, warmth bubbling from the center of my chest to spread throughout my body. I feel _light _for the first time in weeks, and ideas are flowing through my head.

When I give the feather back to the Mokona, the warmth lingers, and I can concentrate once more on the study guides.

Somehow, twenty minutes passes without my notice, but I remember the lonely orange sitting there amongst my binders.

There's a pounding vibrating through the floor. –peels orange disinterestedly-

"Mokona!" a male voice shouts. I miss who said it as I was focusing on removing the peel in one piece, but I _do _register that they duck to avoid a Geometry textbook.

"You've found the feather!" the only girl in the quartet cries joyously. Ye Gods, _joyously? _Obviously, the feather has also turned me into a sentimental nincompoop. –eats orange- (Meanwhile, they duck a second time as a Spanish textbook flies through the air at them.)

The Mokona hops off of my paper-covered table and jumps onto the girl's shoulder. –grabs pencil and paper-

It sinks the feather into her chest. –sketches rapidly-

The feather disappears and she collapses. The Mokona, showing off its remarkable agility, jumps to the tall blonde's (whom I'm almost certain is a guy) shoulder as the youngest catches the girl before she hits the floor.

"Can we leave this world now?" asks the tallest through gritted teeth. He's trying to control himself, and I swear I'm dying with laughter on the inside at his expense because I see how difficult it is for him.

The Mokona, if possible, nods and opens its mouth. I have finished my sketch of the feather. It shall be beautiful when I add color. A three-foot magic rune encircles them, as much out of _Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony _as any book by Tamora Pierce. Wings sprout from the Mokona's back and in a blink, they are gone, only a drifting piece of paper left behind, slowly riding the air currents to the ground.

Honestly, I'm amused. But now, I have to cram for essays and IDs.

But first, to get back at Eric….-chuckles evilly-

**

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**

A/N: And that's it for Cram Week! See you next in the spring!


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